Special 'The New Evidence' attracts a network-record 3.6 million viewers on Sunday night

The special, kicking off Monsters Week on Animal Planet, averaged 3.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen — well above the previous record holder for the network, the 2.8 million who watched “Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real” in 2005. “Mermaids: The New Evidence” was a follow-up to last year’s “Mermaids: The Body Found,” which opened to nearly 2 million viewers.

In addition to total viewers, “Mermaids: The New Evidence” also set network records in most other categories, including adults 18-49 and key male demos.

For its 10 p.m. hour on Sunday, “Mermaids: The New Evidence” was the No. 1 cable network (excluding sports) in adults 25-54 (1.9 million) as well as women 25-54 (809,000).

Early morning. Brain can’t find the big words, but…“Mermaids: The New Evidence” should be excoriated as something worse than all the pseudo-science documentaries and faux documentaries combined.

I watched the initial showing and bought into the conspiracy style docu it purported to be but then it went off the rails showing the undersea life of the mermaids without any real scientific basis. The show never once put up a title saying it was a fake docu like you’re supposed to do ever since OW’s “War of the Worlds” and “Special Edition”. It basically put itself out there as it was all a real thing happening.

It was only after a combination of a discussion on the P.E.G. Practical/Make-up Effects Facebook page and that one of the “scientists” looked like they were “performing” that I grew suspicious and looked up the show on IMDb and indeed discover it was all fake.

Someday, somebody is going to watch this and think it’s all real and with no proper disclaimer, they will believe it and keep passing the untruth along.